Crystal River current. [volume] (Crystal, Colo.) 1886-18??, 1887-07-23
WHITE SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA

i
They Wero Dogs-"Pluck Men
Stores and Cut-throat Leases.
A correspondent of The New Yorh
Herald telegraphs from Wilkesbarre.
Pa, as follows: Not one word sent
out concerning the condition of the
striking miners Mt the Hazelbrook col
liery of S. Wentz & Co.. their griev-
ances and their oppression, has been
overdrawn.
To-day your correspondent spent
some hours among the miserable novels
in which are herded the men who work
for the company. In no other way can
an idea be gained of the condition to
which these unfortunates have been
reduced by years of systematic oppres-
sion.
The colliery is situated in the heart
of the wilderness. some two miles from
the line of the Hazelton division of the
Lehigh Valley railroad. About four
hundred yards from the collery, scat
tered amid rock and tree stumps stand
collection of shanties. some twenty
five in number, each containing two
rooms and little extension. which
answers the purpose of kitchen. The
houses are built OF rough hemlock
boards and are elevated some four feet
above the ground. In the floors and
walls are gaping cracks between the
boards through which you cold thrust
your head.
In these huts, with wind, rain and
snow driving through the crevices, the
miners and their families have to ex-
list the year around.
They have no option-for two miles
in every direction there are no other
houses. The company, though it does
not own the land. controls it under a
lease. They will not suitcase one foot
of it, and. even had the poor miner the
means, he Is given no chance Of making
for himself a better home.
But the company has taken effective
means to prevent him ever getting the
means to live better where he is or
move to better places. The iIiquitous
company-store system, the evils of
which were so glaring that the lesisla-
ture OF Pennsylvania forbade it under
heavy penalty, is in vogue here in its
worst and most oppressive form. The
company have established store at
which they claim to, sell everything
needed, and have issued their fiat that
the men must trade nowhere else.
They have also etiectually taken it
out of the power of the men to 90 else
where if they wished. Completely con-
trolling the land, they have forb d den
any other merchant or dealer to come
on the ground, and if tho men purchase
goods elsewhere they cannot have them
delivered. There is no public roads
through the land, and several merchants
in Freeland and other neighboring
towns who sought to sell their goods to
the miners have been warned, under
penalty of arrest for trespass, not to
venture on the company's land,
The company thus enjoys perfect
monopoly Of the trade. and can extort
what they please. They charge fully
20 per cent. more than the regular rate
for all goods sold, and-in direct viola
ton of the law of the state-deduct the
bills from the miners pay.
Besides the deductions for store SUP.
plies the miners rent, his powder, oil,
coal. use of team to haul the coal, his
board. if he is single man, and even
the charges for the priest and doctor
(who are paid monthly by the company
to look after the spiritual and physical
welfare of the men), are deducted from
lhO DuS. GNO LldJUCE now muCn
u man may earn in a month the de.
ductions invariably amount to as much
or more than his wages, and it is an
actual fact that out Of fourteen men
spoken to by your correspondent not
one had received cent of money for
nine months for wages earned, except
one, who few days ago received
%. 80.
Thus deprived of everything but the
bare necessities of life. never allowed
to obtain possession of few dollars to
enable them to better their condition.
what are the men to do? They can do
nothing but submit to the shameful
system of oppression.
Six months ago the men commenced
to join the Knights of Labor. The
foreman exerted all the pressure possi-
BILE on men known to be Knights and
succeeded in getting many to withdraw.
The engineer. Frank Steele. refused to
leave the order and shortly afterward
was discharged. ostensibly for negli-
gence. The men believed he had been
victimzed and demanded his reinstate-
ment. This wasfefused and a strike
followed
Then the company proceeded to
show their power. Miserable az ara
the huts in which the men live thew
can only gain the right to occupy them
by signing leases which place them
beyond the pale of legal protec ton. In
there iron-clad documents, copies of
which are now on file in the court
house in this city. the men waive all
the rights and protection to which thew
are entitled under the law. They agree
that the moment they cease to work
for the company they must leave the
house; they agree that the company
may at any time, on ten days notice.
evict them and their families, and each
has to.slgn an ''amcable suit in eject
ment,' BY which they formally admis
that they are illegally occupying the
premises. On one of the documents q
writ can be issued without trial and
the tenant and his goods thrown out
Mt the commands v,Iaos,,.o